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TechBrew AM: A Q&A with John Bertrand of Kreg Tool

(From left) John Bertrand, Vice President of Information Technology for Kreg Tool Company, talks with Brian Waller, President of the Technology Association of Iowa Friday morning. Each month the Technology Association of Iowa hosts a networking event with an interview from a local tech company executive.

On the second Friday of every month the Technology Association of Iowa hosts a morning networking event in Des Moines with coffee and an interview with a local tech executive.

This month–John Bertrand, Vice President of Information Technology for Kreg Tool–took turns answering questions on his career path, information technology at Kreg Tool, the impact technology is having on the company and if he were out-of-town, would he rather stay at a friend’s house or a hotel.

Brian Waller, President of the Technology Association of Iowa, conducts the interview and gives each executive who sits down with him a vinyl record of their choice. Bertrand selected, “Under the table and dreaming” by Dave Matthews in 1994.

The interview is edited for consciousness:

This is how we start every time, hometown and high school?

JB: Elgin (Illinois) which is a suburb of Chicago. My high school was Larkin High School home of the Royals.

What is Kreg Tool? And could you tell us a little bit about its history…

JB: Kreg Tool is probably the best-kept secret in Iowa, by far. It’s a DIY woodworking tool manufacturer. We’re employee-owned based in Huxley, Iowa. We are about 27-28 years old.

It’s a very small company from the standpoint of a manufacturer however we compete on a very large-scale. We sell through 67 different countries across the world. Our biggest customers are Lowe’s, Home Depot and Amazon. When you think about the DeWalt’s of the world who are selling through these channels, small little Kreg Tool is doing the same thing and quite honestly, beating them when it comes to retail sales.

Now we don’t sell the exact same stuff they do, so we kind of compete on a different scale but our growth year over year has been very impressive. It actually gets noticed a lot by Lowe’s and Home Depot where they continue to give us more space in their stores. It’s a really exciting time.

What is the function of innovation and IT at Kreg Tool?

JB: IT at Kreg Tool, we’re a pretty small team.

We have ten folks on our team, anything from network administration to developers, to systems analysts and business analysts. Our systems that we use, we do not do custom development, we use a lot of third party purchase applications. So we do a lot of integrations, whether it’s integrating with a sales force or integrating with our warehouse management system, we do a lot of that type of work.

From an innovation standpoint, we have to change from a company perspective and not be just a tool company anymore and be a solutions-based company. We are starting to look at different technologies to do that.

Any examples you can give us?

JB: You see something on Pinterest that you really like and would like to build it. But you don’t know how. So think about a world where you can actually design that product or thing you see on Pinterest, change the dimensions and color of it, then take out your phone and look at it in a room you are in. So you can really see what that piece looks like in your room.

Then actually build out a plan for you and a step by step plan of how to build something. Nobody does that today, they give you the tool and tell you to go figure it out. That’s a lot of things we are looking at right now, whether it be augmented reality, virtual reality, in order to help you through that process.

Be a solutions company, not just a tool company.

What is stressful about your role that keeps you up at night?

JB: Scaling. We continue to grow, we double the size of the business every five years and that’s our plan. We continue to do that so a lot of what I worry about is can we continue to scale and keep up with the business.

The good news is we have been and have done a lot of projects in order to enable that. But at the end of the day when you are growing that fast, are we doing enough and doing the right things in order to support the business and make sure the systems are up and also being sure that we are being efficient about it.